


In the Land of the Frost Giants

by RecordRewind



Category: Thor (Movies)
Genre: Adopted Loki, Adopted Sibling Relationship, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Cold, Family Fluff, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Kid Loki, Kid Thor, movie kid loki i mean, nice Odin, potential freezing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-03
Updated: 2013-12-03
Packaged: 2018-01-03 09:48:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1069021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RecordRewind/pseuds/RecordRewind
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pre-first movie. Loki discovers the truth about his origins when he's just a child, and runs away from home. Thor sets on a mission to find his little brother.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In the Land of the Frost Giants

**Author's Note:**

> Written back in 2011, for a prompt on the LJ meme, now a little revised.

_You are my son_

_Liar!_

The child ran along the thinniest branches of Yggdrasil. Whole universes passed by in a handful of tiny steps, as he tripped over his feet times and times again and immediately resumed his escape across paths hidden to most of deities. 

_Liar!!_ His voice thundered into his own ears, the word he had cried at his father was haunting him, hurting like the truth he had discovered. Lies, everybody had lied to him. For his whole life.

Blinded by tears, Loki ran and ran, as fast as he could, away from home.

\---

"I have found him."

Odin and Frigga looked up to the all-seeing Heimdall. His golden eyes were gazing at the distance without betraying any emotion. There was no need for other words.

"So he went where we feared he would," said Odin in a grave voice.

"Is he well?" asked Frigga. 

"Yes. No one has taken notice of his presence yet. It is a matter of time, though."

"Then we will not wait. Open the Bifrost" Odin ordered. As Heimdall impassively placed his sword in the bridge core, Odin exchanged a look with his wife. "I will go alone. Bringing warriors with me would only endanger the peace, we can not risk that." Frigga nodded, without hiding her concern. She would have gladly accompanied her husband, but her duty called for her to stay in Asgard. If things escalated out of control, Odin would have needed her help from there. "Bring our son back," she said, reaching to caress his cheek. Odin gave her a small nod, then he turned to the Bifrost. Pure energy ran through the Rainbow Bridge, filling the air with light as he stepped through the gate. 

In that exact moment there was a loud crash, quickly followed by a panicked neigh. Frigga turned around fast. Her eyes widened at the sight of a horse, one of the winged-horses of Odin's stable, crashing into the hall through the open passage, wings flapping wildly, somebody clinging to her mane and screaming their heart out. Quick, the Goddess moved forward to grab the reins, steeding the mare. She found herself staring at Sif.

"What in the name of the All-Father is this madness?!" demanded Frigga. The little girl started stuttering some kind of vague explanation.

Beside them, Heimdall closed the Bifrost. He said nothing of the small shape that had dashed while Sif distracted Frigga, throwing himself through the bridge a fraction of second before it was shut, at risk of being killed by it. The god resumed his position guarding the bridge. Observing.

\---

No more than ten steps from where Odin had put his feet on Jotunheim's frozen ground and immediately set off towards Laufey's stone palace, a heap of snow shook, then crumbled as Thor stood up where he had unceremoniously landed. The kid ruffled some snow away from his hair and clothes, then he turned his head left and right to take in the icy desolation that surrounded him. Not even slightly intimidated, he strolled towards a different direction from the one his father had taken, a determined expression on his face.

His brother was there, somewhere, and he was going to find him so they could go back home together.

\---

_They were just playing. Hide and seek bored Thor, who would have much preferred to play at war, but that was only because Loki always managed to sneak on him and win. The dark haired boy knew all the best places to hide, all the secret passages around Asgard. This time he had gone down to the Weapons Room, making sure to leave some trace for Thor to follow. He was planning on leaving his brother there busy searching him for a while. Probably Thor would grow quickly annoyed and start calling him, daring him to come out. And if the guards heard him... well, Thor would have been the one to get caught, not Loki. Already giggling at the prank, Loki had started searching for a good hideout among the relics, when something caught his attention._

_He had already seen the Casket of Ancient Winters, of course, he knew its story by heart. This time, though, it looked different. It glowed in an enticing way, under the kid's eyes, and the incisions on its surface seemed to slowly move, uncoiling like snakes._

_It was calling for him._

_Loki walked to it, mesmerized, and without pausing to wonder if that was wise he reached out and brushed the dark surface with his fingertips, just a quick touch, to feel it. Contrary to what he was expecting, it didn't feel cold. Loki followed one of the coils with his finger, then he pulled back his hand and looked at it. And felt his throat close in sudden fear._

_His skin was turning a dark, bluish shade. Frightened and unable to move, he felt like his own blood was freezing inside his veins. He wanted to scream, but he couldn't find the voice._

_"There you are! This time I've found you!"_

_The ringing voice of his brother made Loki bolt, spinning on himself to face Thor. He saw the other kid's smile fade, his eyes filling with horror at what he was seeing. Loki could feel the cold touching his cheeks from the inside, his eyes were burning. He staggered, then he fell on his knees, his mind closing on itself. The last sound he heard was his brother's feet stomping on the ground as he ran away from him._

Loki pushed his arms into the snow up to the elbows, he took handfuls of it and threw it against his face, pushed into his tunic till it was ice cold soaked. A freezing wind was blowing unmercifully over the cliff where the child was crouching.

It was useless. He wasn't cold.

Or better, he was. He was cold like the ice he had trailed on to reach that place, yet he didn't feel cold. He couldn't. Because...

Loki always had an analytical mind. Even as a very little child, he always tried to solve the problems he faced, to search a way around them, not giving up till he found it. Now the only answer he had was an undeniable truth he only wanted to forget. Now he could only stay there, looking around at the ice surrouding him, disconsolate and helpless like he had never felt before.

When he had woken up only hours before, into his bed, his father was sitting near him. Loki asked what had happened and Odin sighed and tried to explain. He said this was something Loki should have known only in due time, when he was older, which to Loki's ears sounded like "something he should have never known". He had listened, calmly, till the end. Only when Odin lied to him again he couldn't hold back anymore. He shouted at his father in rage, something he would have never imagined himself capable of, he told him he was a liar, and dashed away from the room, going straight to the hidden passages he knew, the ones that brought him out of the palace, and then the ones that brought him away from Asgard, those narrow paths he had only started exploring. He didn't stop till he got to the frozen land.

Jotunheim. The place a Frost Giant like he was should call home...?

\---

Thor was trying to think like Loki. 

It wasn't working very well.

He was standing on top of a snowy hill, rubbing his arms in an attempt to fight the cold. When he heard his parents mentioning the place they thought Loki had gone to he had taken his warmest cape for the trip, and that was as far as he had got in regards to planning. Which probably wasn't much in line with how Loki would have behaved, if he had been into his shoes. Though maybe even Loki wouldn't have been really careful, after what had happened...

The scene that Thor had witnessed in the Weapons Room was etched into his mind. He had seen Loki... change, somehow, and he had seen his face twist in pain. The Casket must have done something to him, that was what he told their father when he found him, after running as fast as he could looking for help. Odin had immediately gone and taken Loki into his room, and Thor waited outside the door, anxious. Then, when he was almost falling asleep, the door slammed open and he saw Loki runnin away before he could stop him. He managed to catch some exchange between his parents that made him realize how serious was the situation. When he realized they were about to go to Heimdall, he resolved to follow, and went asking Sif for help. He didn't stop even for a moment wondering if that was the right thing to do. Odin had taught his sons to look after each other, and that was what Thor was going to do.

To look after Loki he had to find him first, which meant he had to go where Loki would have. The boy tried to reason. Loki would have stayed away of immediate trouble, so he would have avoided the bastions of rocks on the mountains, and he would probably have looked for a good place to hide, and...

Giving up, Thor just started walking in the snow, as fast as he could, looking around for any sign of his brother. When there weren't any, he simply started calling for him.

\---

"LOKI!"

The kid's head shot up at the sound. Loki looked around, momentarily confused. He must have dozed off, sitting with his back leaning against a rock. The wind had subdued a bit, but the snow was falling thicker, and he was half-covered by it. He shook it off and stood up, blinking, trying to understand where the voice came from. Then he noticed a dark shape moving on the plain ground under the cliff. He leaned, and gasped as he recognized his brother, shouting with all his might in the middle of the enemy's land. 

Thor was about to shout out loud again, when he spotted somebody desperately waving with both arms, on top of the cliff in front of him. He ran towards its base, "There you are!!" he shouted, looking up.

"What are you doing here?!" Loki tried to keep his voice low. 

"I've come to get you! Father is here too, somewhere!"

"...is he?"

"Yes! Mother is so worried too, we all are." Thor looked for a way to climb up. His fingers were getting numb with cold, and he was starting to feel annoyed, and maybe a tiny bit scared. He just wanted Loki to go back with him. "Can't you just come down here?"

"Why?! Didn't they told you?"

"Told me what?"

"They didn't." Lies. Always lies. And Thor too was scared of him, Loki remembered all too well the expression on his face, in the Weapons Room. It made him almost feel like crying again. He pulled back from the edge of the cliff.

"Hey!! Where are you going?!" Thor took on climbing as best as he could, forcing his numb hands and feet to find tiny gaps in the rock and ice he could hold onto.

"You should go back to Father." Loki almost bit his tongue. Thor's father. Not his. "Back home"

"We should go back home!" Thor now was feeling really exasperated. "Come on, Loki, let's just go back."

"That's not my home." Loki started walking away.

"What?! Loki, you--"

There was no sound, no crack to warn the boy. The rock he was holding onto suddenly gave up, and Thor found himself falling back, with nothing to grab on. He didn't have the time to shout, the fall was brief enough, but he hit the ground hard with his back. The boy gaped wordlessly, breath abruptly cut off from him.

Then a crack resonated against the back of his head.

"...Thor?" Loki stopped. Brother?

He walked back, quickly, and looked down the cliff, just in time to see Thor's panicked eyes as the frozen ground opened to swallow him into night dark water.

\---

Thor slowly came back to his senses to the sound of something chattering madly. He realized it was his own teeth. He was laying somewhere in the dark. He tried to speak, but found he wasn't able to control his mouth, much like the rest of his body. Every limb of his was shaking. It didn't scare him though. He felt calm, drowsy. He just wanted to go back to sleep.

"You're awake!" Thor felt something against his forehead, no warmer than the air surrounding him, and he forced his heavy eyelids apart. He could see the outline of a familiar shape in front of him.

"...o... k-ki..." he managed.

"I'm here. I'm... I'll think of something. Just stay awake, will you?"

Thor made a movement that could have been a nod, or just another involuntary spasm. Loki tried to accomodate him more comfortably against the wall of the small cave where he had found shelter from the wind and the snow. Then he looked around helplessly, as he could find some advice in the rocks surrounding them.

He had thrown himself after Thor immediately, and managed to grab his arm before he disappeared into the depth of the lake, its temperature so low Thor had passed away from the shock almost right away. He had dragged the bigger boy out and found a shelter, but now he had no idea of what to do. All he knew was Thor was going to freeze if he didn't do something, and he couldn't let that happen.

All their clothes were soaked and almost frozen already. Fire, he needed fire! Loki tried to ignore his shaking brother and focus, recalling the magic he had learnt. He had only started studying it, but he was quick to learn, almost all by himself, from the books... surely he could conjure at least a small fire to warm Thor...! 

A tiny ember appeared in the air in front of him. Loki put all of himself in it, tried to poke it, to make it stronger... it became brighter, almost a flame... then the wind outside blew louder, filling up the child's ears, and the fire dileguated. Loki tried again, more and more desperate, till he gave up with a cry of frustration. 

Of coure he couldn't. Of course! The cold was running into every drop of his blood. Because he was...

"I'm sorry... I'm so sorry... I can't..."

"...what...?"

Loki looked up to meet Thor's glazed eyes, and realized he was crying again, the tears freezing on his cheeks.

"I can't do anything..."

"...'course you c-can... you always... think of something..." Thor's eyes were closing again, and he wasn't shaking as much anymore. That wasn't a good thing. Feeling panic raising into his throat Loki moved closer and embraced his brother. But it was useless. In that place, without external heat, his own skin wasn't warmer than the crusty snow falling out the cave.

_Think!_

It was so cold. And it didn't hurt him, but it would have killed his brother.

_Think!! Something! Anything!!_

But what he could do, he was made of cold, he couldn't give warmth...

_THINK!!_

Then maybe he could take the cold away, take it from his brother and make it his own.

A sudden calm washed over him, as the realization dawned. The child closed his eyes. There was a light blue glow in the air, and even with his eyes closed he could see the cold, like claws and daggers of ice piercing the shape into his arms, cutting his brother's skin and flesh. He reached out and picked those frozen needles and blades away from Thor's small body, one by one, taking them into his own body, into his bones.

He didn't know how long it took. Maybe minutes, maybe hours. But in the end he felt Thor shift, his breathing back to normal. The children opened their eyes at the same time and looked at each other.

"...why are you blue?" Thor asked.

\---

They walked back to where Bifrost had left its mark in the snow. Now that Loki's magic was still keeping the cold away from him Thor was all too happy to kick every block of ice on the way, shouting energically (which annoyed Loki greatly). 

 

There they found Odin, together with Laufey and some more angry-looking Frost Giants. Loki stopped when he saw them, but Thor confidently took his hand and dragged him towards their father. When Odin looked at him Loki was suddenly caught by a completely different kind of fear and shame, remembering how he had called him a liar, for saying he was his father even when it was clear that wasn't true. But Odin just leaned down and gave him a crushing hug, telling him that he was sorry. Loki clinged to his father like it was for his life's sake, while Thor watched them with all the pride of someone who knew he had done his duty, alternating that to glaring daggers to the Giants, just in case they were thinking about keeping Loki there. Not after all the effort he made to get him back!

There was some more talking, and Loki had to answer questions. He stood in front of Laufey, determined not to let himself be intimidated. He was the son of Odin, after all. And... something else. He wasn't sure where this all left him, but at least now he knew his family would have been there to help him figure out. 

"We will need to talk, you, me and your mother" said Odin, as finally the three of them stood waiting for Bifrost to open. Loki glanced back to where Laufey was looking at him one last time before turning back to his frozen castle.

"There's more I need to know?" he asked.

"I still don't know half the story," exclaimed Thor. 

"We will tell the both of you everything. This whole matter might have brought good to our family. There won't be secrets among us, from now on."

"But we will have to keep this a secret from the others back home, for some more time, right?" asked Loki.

"Why?" Thor looked at his brother and father, confused. Odin sighed.

"Many of our people see the Frost Giants only as monsters. Just yesterday you were only asking to fight them too, Thor."

"Well, that was before I knew Loki was one! It means they aren't all so bad. Just annoying, sometimes..."

Loki stared at him in indignation.

"...and if anybody tries saying something bad about my brother I'm going to beat them! I promise!"

Loki wanted to tell his brother that he definitely didn't need his help to defend himself. Instead, he found he could only grin.

"We'll have to tell Sif" added Thor, thoughtfully. "Or she will try beat me if I don't explain her all the story..."

"Good, so I can tell her how I saved your life."

"Hey, if it wasn't for me you would still be there in the snow... you would have become an ince cube!"

"You mean you were about to turn into a snowman..."

Between more banter and laughs, the Rainbow Bridge brought the children back home and into the arms of their mother, who hugged them tight and long as they told her their adventures.


End file.
